The Book of Air

by Joe Treasure

Retreating from an airborne virus with a uniquely unsettling symptom, property developer Jason escapes London for his country estate, where he is forced to negotiate a new way of living with an assortment of fellow survivors. Far in the future, an isolated community of descendants continue to farm this same estate. Among their most treasured possessions are a few books, including a copy of Jane Eyre , from which they have constructed their hierarchies, rituals and beliefs. When 15-year-old Agnes begins to record the events of her life, she has no idea what consequences will follow. Locked away for her transgressions, she escapes to the urban ruins and a kind of freedom, but must decide where her future lies. These two stories interweave, illuminating each other in unexpected ways and offering long vistas of loss, regeneration and wonder. The Book of Air is a story of survival, the shaping of memory and the enduring impulse to find meaning in a turbulent world.

Genres: Fiction

286 pages, Paperback

Published April 4, 2017

About the author

Raised sixth in a family of nine, Joe Treasure enjoyed a capriciously Bohemian childhood. Having received his educational grounding at the hands of Carmelite priests, he escaped to Cheltenham Grammar School where he excelled only in music and art. His architectural ambitions were thwarted by low grades in maths and physics. The local college of further education allowed him to pursue more congenial subjects, after which he surprised everyone, not least himself, by winning a place to read English at Keble College, Oxford.

Settling in Monmouth, Wales, Joe taught English and ran an innovative drama programme. He moved to Los Angeles at the turn of the millennium to join his wife, Leni Wildflower. Temporarily unemployed, he set about fixing up Leni’s house and turned to writing fiction.

In 2004, at the end of George W Bush’s first explosive term in office, they relocated to London where Joe studied creative writing at Royal Holloway. He wrote The Male Gaze, a novel that drew on his American experience, mingling social comedy with political drama. Offered a two-book publishing contract with Picador, he went on to explore the divided loyalties of an Anglo-Irish family in Besotted, a novel that celebrates the enduring bonds of brotherhood.

The Book of Air is Joe’s first venture into speculative fiction. He and Leni currently live in Balham, London.

Reviews

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Told in 2 timelines, this story covers the beginning of an epidemic and it's fallout in one timeline, and the same location a few generations later when society has reestablished itself. It is a story of loss, courage, acceptance and of facing the future.

I enjoyed both Jacob's and Agnes' stories. These are strong people making the best of their situations and trying to find a peace within themselves and their surroundings.

Published in 2017, the epidemic described in this story is remarkably like Covid in 2020. Huh......

[Gary · Rating 2 out of 5]

I know some people think this was a masterpiece, but I just didn’t see it. The pace of the book was so slow , and the characters so boring, I just had to abandon it.

[S. K. Pentecost · Rating 1 out of 5]

even more interminable than the actual Jane Eyre. On and on and on and on... all in the cause of a impossible to suspend disbelief plot.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

Also view on Bookmarks and Blogging

The Book of Air is an interesting, character driven post-apocalyptic story. There are no zombies, nor any real action so to speak, just the struggles of two different societies as they react to their respective changes.

First, we have the modern day, which - in this - is actually the past. We follow Jason as he battles a mysterious virus, acts as guardian to his nephew, and comes to terms with the fact that life as he knew it is no more. There are other characters, such as Maud, Abigal, Alexksy, and Django, in Jason's chapters, but none are quite so central nor focused on as he is. Treasure takes us deep into his mind and his past to set the foundations for the second part of the story.

Agnes' half of the book is very much based off Jason's, but you don't necessarily know that until key pieces of information are dropped. And when they are - trust me - the cogs inside your head will start turning and you'll get a true appreciation for the intricacies of how the two worlds combine.

As characters, Agnes and Jason feel like individuals and it's easy to tell their voices apart. Agnes is smart, inquisitive, and only a little naive. Jason is wrapped up in the past, grieving, and - at times - even angry and bitter. Supporting characters aren't quite as developed, but you can still tell The Reader from Aleksy and Sarah from Deidre. In the scheme of things, though, they really aren't as central to the story as Jason and Agnes.

The story itself, however, is where things fell a little flat for me. I still enjoyed the book and it was unlike anything else I've read - what is an entirely new world, drawing all they know from a copy of Jane Eyre? I've certainly never come across that before - it was severely lacking in action and anything fast paced. Not a problem if you enjoy a good meander through the details of every day life and getting to know your narrators, but I personally enjoy a good fight sequence or five in my books.

Nevertheless, The Book of Air isn't a slow read due to the fact that it's under three hundred pages and is written in a compelling style. Even if you do long for action you'll want to keep reading as there's something about the main characters that continues to draw you in, and there are times when the drama and mystery is amped up.

If you're on the hunt for a read set in the near future but don't want zombies, dystopian dictatorial regimes, or teens fighting to the death, give The Book of Air a go.

[Jack Messenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Book of Air by Joe Treasure is an exceptionally fine novel that discloses its secrets gradually, in triumphantly unexpected ways. The stories it tells gather momentum and significance with each short chapter; it is populated by personages in whom we can believe; it is profoundly intelligent and deeply engrossing. Its allusions and references are delightfully subtle and oblique, conveyed effortlessly by the author’s gift for language and ideas. I doubt I shall read a finer novel this year.
The Book of Air presents the reviewer with an impossible dilemma: how to talk about it without giving the game away. By ‘game’ I don’t mean mere plot spoilers – The Book of Air is a novel that positively requires to be read and reread. Rather, the pleasures the novel provides are so intricately bound up as parts to a whole that any choice of things to highlight risks exposing the entire enterprise. So I shall have to talk about The Book of Air by carefully avoiding talking about it.
Joe Treasure has the great gift of making the reader feel intelligent. When realizations dawn as to what exactly is going on, when small epiphanies and powerful revelations are grasped in all their ramifications, it’s hard not to be gratified, intrigued and somehow enhanced. This is particularly impressive if, like me, you are not drawn to speculative fiction, or your heart sinks at the sight of a novel that switches between two different stories chapter by chapter. In lesser hands, this latter aspect is so often a gimmick packed with forced associations and overly neat plot devices. In The Book of Air it is redeemed as an intensely literary and naturally expressive structure, entirely unforced and beautifully vindicated.
The Book of Air is about ending and beginnings, the past and the future:

‘…the world’s about to end all over again. There’s no end to the ending of things. Our life is one long sickening plummet into loss and more loss.’
I used to think of myself as walking forward into the future, constructing the future I was walking into. I used to think of myself as not wasting energy thinking of myself as one thing or another, but just doing what had to be done. Now I seem to stand sideways on, watching some version of me that isn’t quite me. I notice myself feeling things. Or not. Or more than one thing at a time.

It is a gothic novel inasmuch as it is centred chiefly on a single location – a large country house that has endured as uniquely itself yet is always in transition, in need of rescue.

Either we pay attention, or we abandon the place to the slow invasion of nature, the seep and drip of water finding the weak points, until a dozen winters have split it open like a fallen trunk for woodlice to crawl through and rodents and nesting birds … The heat’s off, the damp’s rising. The works of man are rotting from the inside.

Its inhabitants – pre- and post-apocalypse – are unwittingly associated across time. Thematically, this association is the most important aspect of the novel and its principal concern: how, why and in what forms a culture (especially literary culture) is transmitted, interpreted and fragmented, used and misused, twisted and distorted, lost and found, particularly after immense social upheaval. Why has humanity always needed to tell itself stories? Here is one answer, perhaps the only answer:

‘Maybe because it’s our deepest instinct – to make meaning.’
‘Even when there is no meaning?’
‘Especially then.’

The Book of Air is thus of necessity intertextual, and one of its pleasures is to identify its many instances. Byron, the Brontës, the Bible, George Eliot, Hardy, Hemingway, Austen, Conrad, Lawrence, Rhys – these are the few I identified, but there are surely many more. Try as I might, I cannot resist quoting one of the references to another cultural phenomenon: ‘In all the empty houses in all the towns in all the world she had to squat in mine.’ And it’s oddly typical how external coincidence plays into a novel of this kind: two days prior to reading The Book of Air, a film I was watching quoted from Margaret Wise Brown’s Goodnight Moon (1947), which is also referenced in the novel. It felt to me as if the book was reaching out and claiming my experience for its own.
The gothic frequently encompasses gender power relations: how men seek to exploit, control and confine women, and the mental and emotional consequences of oppression. In The Book of Air Agnes speaks from within the prison of her room: ‘This room is memory and I am lost in it … This room is mad and I am its only thought.’ Shades of The Yellow Wallpaper haunt her words.
Illegitimate claims to authority and righteous resistance to its demands reflect forward and back between the two stories of The Book of Air. The will to power – usually subconscious in its causation and explicitly provided with a religious justification – manifests itself over and over again by means of words in a book. Things change in order to stay the same, as Jason realizes:

I wanted to ask her – hadn’t she been here before? They give you a book. They say, it’s all in here, this is all you need.

The discovery that there is more than one book, that each has a story to tell, that we each have our own books, is The Book of Air’s liberating riposte to such dangerous nonsense, the outworkings of which are described in its moving finale.
As some of the extracts above indicate, the dialogue is natural and unforced. There is a great deal of it, but it never feels excessive and it always reveals character in precise, unmistakable ways.
There are occasional typos and, towards the end of the novel, someone should have known the difference between leaks and leeks. These irritations aside, The Book of Air is a major achievement: compelling, surprising, true. A book that must surely endure.

[Gayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I fell into this book! The Book of Air is thought provoking. It pulls the reader into a mirror world while exploring how human beings make meaning. Treasure starts with multiple threads that leap across time, then he gracefully weaves them together into a beautiful story blanket that quietly chronicles alternate histories: how stories grow, our need for knowing, and our very human need to be known, to tell our story. Agnes, a storyteller from the book speaks “. . . of bringing things into being just by putting the words on paper”. Treasure has done just that, he has brought a world to life in this book that weaves what might exist, with what might happen. Everyone should read this book.

[Joanne Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Speculative fiction in a future when humans have been destroyed by a virus. Jane Eyre is the only novel left to read and all the mythology or ideology in a small survivor community is built on aspects of the novel. Two stories, one present day just after the virus strikes, and one hundreds of years later (in my interpretation - there's no dates), intertwine to gradually tell the story of the community. Need to have read Jane Eyre to understand parts of it, although I thought that using the novel to build an ideology could have gone further.

[Steph Warren · Rating 4 out of 5]

*I received a free ARC of this book via Authoright’s Clink Street Spring Reads Week 2018. The decision to review and my opinions are my own.*

The Book of Air has the heavy feel of a post-apocalyptic dystopian novel, but there are no zombies as a result of this plague, just people trying to pick up the tatters of the entirety of human civilization and make something new from the remaining rags.

The story is told in two first-person accounts: one, the interior monologue of Jason in the immediate aftermath of the plague that has wiped out most of humanity; the other the written narrative of Agnes, a future descendant of the small community eventually established in Jason’s country residence.

Both tales mirror the book that they are so intimately bound with, Jane Eyre, by having a dramatically portentous atmosphere, with little actual dramatic action to show for it. There are lots of confrontations that peter into embarrassed normality, and the few injuries/deaths in the narrative are deliberately anticlimactic in presentation.

All of the intensity here is reserved for the interactions between humans and narratives: written and oral. The need for storytelling, and how we frame our lives into story-shapes and how the stories reshape us in return. This is, of course, overt in the ‘four books’ device, but is reflected and reinstated everywhere, in the texts Jason remembers and refers to in passing, the legends passed down to Agnes, the diary of Agnes herself, and the very text we are interacting with as readers.

I confess to not engaging emotionally with the characters here, despite feeling that I should. There was nothing inherently unlikable about Agnes and Jason and their companions, but their detached narrative tone set up an emotional distance from me as a reader. This is not actually a criticism, as I found plenty here to engage with intellectually, and have enjoyed revisiting the ideas and questions repeatedly in the days since finishing this story.

I did particularly like playing literary detective in spotting the book references, and deciphering the identities of the ‘four books’ before they were revealed. Likewise as a longtime fan of Jane Eyre I revelled in the smuggery of references to ‘Masons’ and ‘Reeds’ and ‘Red Rooms’, and chuckled knowingly at the ‘murk’ and the ‘Jane Writer’. I felt these references were entertaining, but also liked the feeling of looking at the familiar through alien eyes: an unsettling view into our society from the future that gave me lots of food for thought.

Overall this book is not an easy read, but an enjoyably thought-provoking one, with some sly winks to bookworms throughout.



There are four books. Everyone knows this. Everyone who is not too dull even to learn the Book of Moon when they are six summers old. Four books. The Book of Moon, which is for all the people of the village. The Book of Air, which is for those clever enough to study and with the time to leave off field work. The Book of Windows which is for one or two maybe in a lifetime. The Book of Death which is for no one living, not until the world is soon to end. Four books. What book is this then?

– Joe Treasure, The Book of Air

Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog
https://bookshineandreadbows.wordpres...

[Jessica Bronder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story is told by two people. Agnes talks of a time that has moved on from our own. She lives on a country estate with several others that use items left over from the prior owners. No one really knows how some of the stuff works or even how to keep it from breaking down. This world is based on one of four books that they found on the estate, Jane Eyre.

Jason is from our time. He is a survivor from an airborne virus that has killed most of the population. He barely gets out of London with a few other survivors and heads to a country estate. They form a community and try to keep alive in this new world.

This is a story of discovery and survival. I like how you bounce back and forth between Jason and Agnes and how different their worlds are. You do come to learn that Agnes is in a world about one hundred years from Jason’s.

This is not a high action story, more of a telling of how both worlds have changes from ours and what these people have done to survive. It a good read and I find it interesting how Agnes’ community to have been created around Jane Eyre. I’m not one for Bronte but I have read this one. Although I’m not really fond of it, I liked how you could pick up different parts of this story. I enjoyed this book and recommend everyone check it out.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. I voluntarily chose to read and post an honest review.

[Nutty · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a fan of post-apocalyptic prose usually. But something called to me the moment I read the book description and I am not sorry I picked it up. A very interesting concept, a world built on four books only. Even more interesting it was to discover along the way what those books were in reality. I liked the personal style of writing and the way the two stories constantly intertwined and built each other. I didn't necessarily like the open ending, but I could see why it might have been needed.
All in all, a very interesting read, though at times challenging.

[JR · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book meanders along its way. There were moments I nearly gave up out of boredom. I'm glad that I stuck with it, though, as it is a good book. It's almost entirely character driven, though there are some plot-based mysteries along the way. And a few sort-of adventures. Excellently written, and well worth the slow pace it follows.

Trigger or Content Warnings for sexual abuse of children and sexual violence (both discussed at length, implied, and attempted on-page). If these are things you struggle with, be aware going in that it's a very present part of this book, though I did feel it was mostly handled with tact.

Ultimately, a very unique book which has an artful style and an interesting story.

[Jake Stevens · Rating 3 out of 5]

🌕🌕🌗🌑🌑 2.5 / 5

An undoubtedly unique and intriguing virus story told in two perspectives, despite its horrendously slow opening and half-formed ideas. Jason and Agnes are distinct enough in voice and illustrate the finely detailed societies they inhabit, though the virus itself and its various effects are hardly explored, nor are the books that form the basis of Agnes' comprehension of the world.

[Lesley Hayes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and moving

This book is so simply, beautifully written. It kept me enthralled all the way through, and touched me in so many ways. Memorable characters and an all too believable narrative. I haven't come across this author before, but now I'm looking out for all his books.

[Peter Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a little bit of getting to know what was really going on. Keep going all is revealed eventually. Second half of the book read in less than half the time of the first half.

[mr t m crossfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book with an intriguing premise and a story well told.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

* I received this book in exchange for an honest review, this does not alter my opinion of it in any way *

We follow to stories in this book – that of Jason, a survivor of the virus, a disease that wiped out a large amount of the human race; and Agnes, a young girl in the far future living in an isolated community.

It took me a little while to get into the flow of this book. I did spend a fair amount of the beginning, quite confused about what was going on. Once I got into the two story lines it was a lot easier to follow.

Jason lives in a world where most of the population were taken by the virus. In his home there is only him and a handful of others’ who are immune. They get by as well as they can, with no electricity or running water, and very little food. Agnes lives in the future, where they study four books, including the Book of Air – Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. It is a kind of Bible to them.

As odd as believing Jane Eyre was a kind of bible was, it was an interesting idea for Treasure to come up with. It helped that I have read it, and therefore when the characters talked about things that Jane did, I followed along easily. Obviously, it is not required that you be familiar with Jane Eyre but it does make it a little easier.

What kept me enticed with the story was finding out how these two characters could be connected. They are in completely different worlds, different ages and have completely different circumstances. It was very clever how Treasure put it all together.

All through this book, in both characters’ points of view, there is a major theme of hope. This keeps you reading, to find out what happens to them in the end, and to see if having hope did them any good.

[Susan Corcoran · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review

The Book of air is a compelling, character driven tale of survival in a post apocalyptic future. Beautifully paced, it weaves between Jason’s life in a society imploding in on itself when a deadly virus kills millions and Agnes’s in a community regenerating from the ruins mankind’s near destruction.

One of the reasons I loved this book, is that Joe Treasure gives us something unique in genre which is so often full of depressing tales of darkness. He gives us a tale of hope! I have read a number of similar themed books and have been left feeling bereft after each one. Treasure develops his theme of devastating loss, but achieves a unique balance between hope and despair. He gives us a tale in which there is the possibility for mankind’s redemption.

It is also interesting how he uses Jane Eyre to connect Jason’s heartbreak and struggle for survival with the need of later generations to find answers in a world far removed from the one we know now. In Agnes he gives us a figure of heroic bravery, a women who strides out into the unknown, rather than live as a figure of derision within the claustrophobic confines of village life. Jason is a flawed character who is forced to navigate a life in a world left devastated by not only his personal loss, but of all the things that make up society as we know it. He must draw on those parts of his character, that give not only him a chance of survival, but the odd assortment of people who form a community in his country home.

We are drawn to turn the pages, to see if Jason lives and what his connection is to young Agnes. Will society survive and in what form? Treasure makes you care about both of his characters, and those around them. He wants you to understand what makes us human, and gives you hope that when all seems lost, its possible to find promise in the bleakest of troubles.

Its a first class novel, written with skill and understanding. He will draw you in and take you on a journey of discovery, while championing the power of the individual to fight against cruelty and oppression

If you like novels about survival in adversity and the power of memory to shape the future, you should give this book a try. Its a worthy contribution to a genre to often depressingly hopeless in its outlook .

I like feeling hopeful and this book allows me to remain that way.

[Jessica Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept for a dystopian novel to turn to Jane Eyre.

After an airborne virus attacks the world, Jason tries to flee London to his country estate when his wife and unborn child succumb to the virus. Jason himself becomes infected, but he manages to be one of the few survivors of the virus. His nephew seems to be immune to it. After he arrives at his estate, there are already people living there, but they end up taking care of Jason so that he makes a recovery. But now he must learn to live a new way with people he didn’t plan to spend the remainder of his life with.

In the distant future, a new society has emerged that regards the book Jane Eyre as the new way of life. Agnes belongs to the society, but thinks outside of the rules, which ends up earning her imprisonment. After she manages to escape, she finds a bit of freedom, but must decide on the true course of her life.

I think this book has promise, but it just took a really long time to get into. The story is told from alternating viewpoints of Jason and Agnes, but it can get confusing because they are at different times. I was more drawn to Jason’s story as I enjoy post-apocalyptic literature and the virus aspect was really interesting, even if the supporting characters got on my nerves a bit. If you are looking for something a little different or like Jane Eyre, this may be for you.

There is some strong language throughout as well as several implied sex scenes, however nothing is really graphic.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. The views and opinions expressed within are my own.

[USOM · Rating 4 out of 5]

This had a totally interesting mix of apocalyptic feel and Jane Eyre all wrapped together which made it really cool. Both Jason and Agnes were interesting characters and the way the two time periods mixed together made me think of Arcadia. The plot was fascinating and the mirrors between them were excellent. This would be a great book club book and something I am itching to talk about!

full review: https://utopia-state-of-mind.com/revi...
disclaimer: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review from the Publisher